A FORMER RAF airman called Mr Reich has recalled missions and life as prisoner of war.

His recollections come on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II on September 1, 1939.

Doug Reich’s surname is Scottish (pronounced reesh) – although Reich is also a German word meaning nation.

The ex-Flight Lieutenant served as an aerial photographer attached to the Army.

He photographed the French coast before D-Day, VI rocket sites and Pegasus bridge in Normandy to see if it could carry Allied tanks.

But while returning in his Mustang aircraft from the bridge mission, he crash-landed in the River Seine. He was picked up by a French fishing boat crew and handed over to the Germans.

He spent the rest of the war – 11 months – as a PoW in Stalag Luft I camp near Germany’s Baltic coast. Its sister camp, Stalag Luft III, inspired the Great Escape film.

The airman, now 87 and living in Colwyn Bay, said: “I will be thinking of my comrades on September 1.”

Doug was a 17-year-old lad from Sale, Manchester when war was declared. After joining the RAF he trained in Canada and was then stationed in RAF bases in southern England. He found himself flying Mustangs on low-level photography reconnaissance with 2 Squadron, an Army co-op squadron.

But disaster struck for Doug on June 15, 1944. He recalls: “At 05.00hrs I was briefed to lead a section to attack the ferry boats that were taking German troops across the River Seine. The ferry was allowing them to get to the beachhead much quicker than by road. At a place called Caudebec, I saw a ferry on the bank. I blasted it with my four 20mm cannons. I pulled up, turned and fired on another ferry on the opposite bank. I turned back over the river doing well over 300mph.

“And that is the last thing I remember. I regained consciousness in a French cottage eight to ten hours later. Apparently, I’d floated in the river for several hours. It was a miracle I survived. I only had bruising, concussion and a broken ankle.”

Fortunately, he had given his ‘Mae West’ inflatable lifejacket a few lungfuls of air before take-off. It was in case a crash ever burned his hands and he couldn’t hold and blow into his mouthpiece while in water. “My Mae West had saved me.”

But the crash’s cause remains a mystery.

Says Doug: “The only thing I can think of is that I’d been flying too low, put a wing tip in the water and cartwheeled in.”

He spent weeks in hospitals and was sent to Stalag Luft I in July 1944.

Understandably, his Scottish name had sparked confusion.

“When I was being interrogated in Frankfurt beforehand, the interrogator looked at my name, blue eyes and fair hair and thought I was German. I said ‘I am not! All my relatives come from the Glamis area of Scotland.’ Reich was probably misspelt in the 1700s.”

Conditions were tough but inmates got Red Cross parcels from Britain and the US to stave off starvation. Under captivity, however, he did develop acute appendicitis. A fellow PoW and doctor removed the organ by torchlight during an air raid.

Doug survived and in May, 1945, Stalag Luft I was liberated by the Russians. The mood, of course, brightened with unexpected perks. He said: “A day or so later, a Russian Colonel visited our camp and decided we needed some fresh meat. So he sent a very drunk soldier who drove a herd of cows through our gate. It was very funny.”

On May 13, 1945, a fleet of American Flying Fortresses evacuated all RAF personnel. Doug returned to England and got a job as a newspaper photo engraver in Manchester. He met and married Sheila, 82, for 61 years, they have a son and a daughter, three grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.